There will be no whistle-blowing by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, over the hefty donations by Nigeria’s super-rich and big corporate organisations to President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign for re-election next year.

President Jonathan had raked in N21.27 billion at a fundraising a few days ago, 21 times more than the N1 billion permitted by the electoral Act.

But in a report online by Punch, the INEC has foreclosed any action over the donations, passing the responsibility to the security agencies. INEC according to the report said that only security agencies can investigate any party, person or company that violates any part of the country’s Electoral Act.

“The commission which however admitted that it had the power to prosecute violators of the Act, explained that before it could do so, it must have concrete evidence before it.

“INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, stated this following an enquiry by The PUNCH on whether the commission would investigate and prosecute the Peoples Democratic Party, companies and individuals who donated over N21.27bn to President Goodluck Jonathan’s electioneering.

“Osaze-Uzzi said, “Before you prosecute, won’t you investigate? Before you prosecute somebody, the person has to be investigated. If a person shoots another man on the street, the police cannot just charge him to court. They will have to follow a process.

““Don’t forget that INEC has no powers to investigate. But it has powers to prosecute. It is the security agencies that investigate. We don’t have investigative powers; but we have prosecutorial powers. If they have investigated and found out that somebody was wrong, we will prosecute that person.

“It is after investigation that we can prosecute. And there must be an evidence that a crime has been committed.”

When asked if the commission had contacted any of the security agencies over the issue, he replied: “I can’t say yes or no as of now.”

*Reported by Punch